LeBron James: His standard, his critics, and his Chamberlain echoes, good and bad

* I’ve just discovered that Commander Ratto wrote something on this very theme days ago, which is troublesome because 1) He wrote it first; 2) If we both come up with something, the odds grow great that it is terribly, terribly wrong. If it’s wrong, he’s wronger than me. That’s my last defense.

-You can’t ask LeBron James to keep doing what he did tonight… because nobody can do that every playoff game.

Michael Jordan in his prime couldn’t do it every playoff game, Kobe Bryant couldn’t and can’t, Larry Bird couldn’t. It’s just not possible.

Well, it actually was possible for Wilt Chamberlain, who I am now eyeing as a fascinating historical/statistical/can-he-win-the-big-one comparable to the current LeBron situation.

Different times, very different players, I’m not saying LBJ is exactly the new Wilt or that Wilt was the old LeBron. And yet… Hmm…

LeBron is now 27, finishing his 9th NBA season, and he just won his third MVP despite not yet having a championship.

The only player to have won 3 or more MVPs in a similar championship-situation historically was…

-Chamberlain, who didn’t win a championship until 1967, the conclusion of his eighth season, when he was 30–which was the same year he won his third MVP.

So if LeBron does win his first title this year, there is only one player to have gone down that path, and it’s… you know who.

And if LBJ doesn’t win the title this year… his early career arc remains closely comparable to one player and ONLY one player, who won two titles eventually and people still wondered if he had the right stuff.

That’d be Wilt.

I’m not saying they were wrong to wonder about Wilt, especially compared to Bill Russell’s 11 championships.

I’m just saying LeBron will go through the same analysis until he wins a title, and then he might hear it even after that, the same way Wilt did.

With talent like that, why not win more? Why not win every year?

And maybe the entire league (or Kevin Durant or some other great star gobbling up the titles) will turn into LeBron’s haunted version of Russell.

Of course, Wilt’s numbers are so ridiculous, it’s impossible to compare him straight up with anybody, even LeBron. Different game, much larger numbers across the board, especially for Chamberlain.

-Shaquille O’Neal was a very good physical comparable to Wilt… until Shaq went ahead and won those four championships, doubling Wilt’s total. (Though Shaq only won one MVP.)

So I’m getting back to the LeBron/Wilt echoes…

Can we conclude that Wilt was a singular force at his size with that that strength and grace in that era, and that LeBron is also a singular force of size/strength/grace in this era, only at a different position?

Can we say that Wilt was presumed to have failed every time he didn’t win a title, and that Wilt was the only guy judged that way?

And that LeBron is judged similarly and also the only one in this era to be under that microscope?

(Again, I’m not saying it’s wrong, I’m just saying it happens only to LeBron.)

I think we can say those things. This might get people yelling, but I’m still going ahead with this.

Clearly one of the great playoff performances ever, coming against one of the best defensive teams in the NBA, geared up to slow him down.

But the rub: All it did was extend this series to Game 7 on Saturday in Miami, and if James doesn’t hit the same levels, and if Miami loses, then the roaring debate will start again.

Can LeBron win the Big One?

My call: It’s beyond obvious that LeBron is good enough to win many titles and that he will win at least one or two eventually, just like Wilt did.

LeBron probably won’t win as many as MJ or Magic did… but I think he will win at least one.

I know, there’s a huge gap between being “good enough” and really doing. If LBJ never wins a championship, that will be a major, major stain on his historical significance.

Yes, he probably should’ve won one by now–he’s that much better than everybody else, even Durant, though Durant is closing that gap quickly.

LeBron rightfully won his third MVP this year… and every other player that won 3 or more MVPs had a title by the time of his 1st or 2nd MVP win. Except Wilt.

–The flip side of that, Magic Johnson didn’t win his first MVP–of three, eventually–until 1987, the same season he won his third championship. Magic won his first title at 20.

–Jordan was 28 when he won the first of his six titles; he won the first of his five MVPs the previous season.

–Shaq was also 28 when he won the first of four championships (in his 8th season), and that was his only MVP year.

Sometimes the greats win titles early, too, I know, but the flood of MVP awards almost always come later.

-Kobe Bryant (as Shaq’s No. 2) won his first of five titles at 21 and didn’t win his only MVP until eight years later.

–Tim Duncan the first of his four championships at 23 and didn’t win his only MVP until three years later; Durant might win his first title this year at 23 and has not won an MVP.

Titles, then multiple MVPs, that’s the way it usually works.

Again, except for LeBron and Wilt. (Karl Malone and Steve Nash both won two MVPs without winning any titles, which is why I used 3 or more MVPs as my main cut-off for this discussion.)

It’s fair to judge LeBron by high standards, because he is the best player in the game, he’s capable of incredible things, and yet he has had more than his share of late-series flame outs, too.

No question on the flame outs. Might happen again this year.

But let’s be accurate here: James is judged by the highest standards in the history of the NBA, and only LeBron and Wilt have gone through this for this many years.

Even if LeBron falls short in every other big historic sporting measurement, just being put in a category alone with Wilt isn’t a bad accomplishment, right there.

Maybe it’s frustrating. But nobody else is there.

–OK, one other thing…

I ran through a few of the historic single-game playoff performances in recent history… and you just don’t see back-to-back games (within the same series) like that.

With one possible exception: James himself, in the middle of the Indiana series.

* Jordan went for 63 monumental points in the double-OT (Bird: “God disguised as Michael Jordan”) loss at Boston in Game 2 of the 1986 first round. (Jordan’s second season.)

But in the clinching Game 3 loss (122-104), Jordan only scored 19 points on 8-for-18 shooting, though he was only one assist short of a triple-double.

* Kobe Bryant put up 45 points, 10 rebounds and 3 assists in Game 1 at San Antonio in the Western semis.

But in Game 2, Bryant’s line: 28 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists.

(Bryant did have back-to-back monster efforts in those playoffs, but one of them was to close the first round against Sacramento–48-16-3–followed by the Game 1 extravaganza vs. San Antonio. I’m only counting back-to-back games in the same series for this discussion.)

* Isiah Thomas erupted for 43 points–24 in the third quarter alone–in Game 6 of the NBA Finals vs. the Lakers in LA. But Detroit, with a chance to clinch the title, still lost the game.

But in Game 7, hobbling on the ankle he injured during the Game 6 spree, Thomas shot only 4-for-12 and 10 points as the Lakers took the series.

* Because I’ve just got to include it, Sleepy Floyd turned into Superman and scored 51 (on 18-for-26 shooting) overall and a record 29 in the fourth vs. the Lakers in Game 4 of the first round at Oakland in 1987–the Warriors only win in that series.

But in Game 5, Floyd shot 7-for-17, scored 18 points and the Warriors were eliminated.

* And let’s do LeBron’s own history following a monster playoff performance… (Yes, you’re quite good when you can make this list twice or three times..)

His previous greatest playoff game was his 48-point, 9-rebound, 7-assist explosion for Cleveland in Game 5 at Detroit in Eastern Conference finals, with the series tied 2-2.

In the next game, James was good in Cleveland’s series-clinching victory in Game 6–a near triple-double–but he only shot 3-for-11 and scored 20 points.

* LeBron again: Actually, the best follow-up to an epic playoff performance came just this season, from LBJ, who lit Indiana for 40, 18 and 9 in a Game 4 victory at Indy with the Heat trailing the series 2-1.